Our invention relates to an article of manufacture which functions as a modified chess gameboard with associated chess pieces. More particularly, our invention relates to improvements to a chess-like game for two, three or four individuals. There are four separate full armies with no less than two but not more than four individuals playing chess simultaneously against each other.
The conventional chess game requires two chess players, each player being in control of one separate army. The term `army` is well known in the art among those skilled in the game of chess. The conventional game is played on a square gameboard which is divided into thirty two light and thirty-two dark squares. These squares are all of equal size and arranged to alternate in a checkered pattern. Thirty two chess pieces are separated into two equal army sets by color, conventionally, black and white. The game is played in accordance with the well known conventional rules.
Others have modified the above conventional game to accommodate more players or simplify the rules. U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,241 (Faraci, Jr.) comprises a three player chess-like game with a gameboard shaped as an equilateral triangle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,787 (Miccio) describes a chess-like game which comprises a lesser number of vertical and horizontal rows on the gameboard. Miccio also has a reduced number of playing pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,099 (Lucero) discloses a gameboard for a game of chess with four players There is a conventional gameboard and each player controls one-half of an army.
Our invention is superior in that the experienced player will find our four complete set approach more challenging and intricate. Accordingly, one object of our present invention is to raise the technical and intellectual requirements above that of conventional two player/two army chess. In the preferred approach, one player pits himself or herself simultaneously against three individual opponents, each with a full army. An individual player wins by checkmating the Kings of the other three armies.
The preferred embodiment of our invention comprises a square game board. This gameboard, in turn, comprises equal numbers of smaller seventy-two dark and seventy-two light equal sized squares. These squares alternate in a checkered light and dark pattern, which in the preferred embodiment are black and white.
The gameboard also comprises a complete border surrounding the entire periphery of the checkered area. The border, in turn, comprises designation marks which dictate forward movements of pawns, a playing piece well known in the art of playing conventional chess.
The physical embodiments of gamepieces of our invention are similar to those of conventional chess, with the exception of minor physical modifications to the pawns. These gamepieces generally move similarly to those of conventional two player and two army chess. However, the number and movements of several gamepieces differ from conventional chess, see infra. Pawns in our improved game move forward on the modified gameboard in two different forward directions.